Edoardo Ballerini

A short film by Poppy de Villeneuve for the fashion website nowness.com…

A piece about tonight’s reading: “Gomorra” Reaches the New York Stages

Professional acting is not a meritocracy. There are countless talented actors who toil in obscurity while bona fide hacks saw the air too much nightly across living rooms throughout the land. It has always been thus, and shall always be thus.

Professional ball players might get paid too much, but if you can’t throw strikes, you’ll be sent down the minors pretty quickly. Not so with entertainment. If somebody up there likes you, they’ll make the strike zone fit whatever you’re chucking down the pike. Your only talent could be in getting people to believe you have talent. Read more…

My friend and teacher Stephen Tobolowsky was fond of telling us, “If you’re going to steal, and by all means do, then steal good.” It’s a smart practice if done properly. Creative types are always “borrowing” ideas, often blurring the line of outright theft, but we should at least take something useful.

(Ultimately, my rationale is this: in the end, I’m either going to do it consciously or unconsciously, so I may as well fold it into my mindfulness practice and be aware of it.) Read more…

My concentration has waned miserably in recent years. (Thank you, internet, you are truly a blessing and a curse.) I find it hard to stay focused on any one thing for more than a few minutes, but the cultivation of concentration is the final step on the Path, and one that should be taken very, very seriously. Anyway, let’s break concentration into two categories: the short-term and the long-term. Read more…

In a business of perception, Right Mindfulness may stand apart as one of the most neglected concepts in a professional acting career. We are asked to hype things beyond recognition, airbrushing the truth to a nearly unrecognizable state. And there’s a real argument that if you don’t do these things, you’re not using a major tool in the proverbial toolbox. So much for seeing things as they are, the basis of Right Mindfulness. Read more…

A year and a half ago I came to the conclusion that my life was floundering.  And to remedy this I was doing… nothing. I had been scrounging for work I didn’t care about and didn’t believe in, and all for… nothing. It was a horrible time. Opportunities were passing me by, and I curled up and did… nothing. Though I did not understand it at the time, at the root of my troubles was the complete renunciation of Right Effort. Read more…